Just spent the morning tying up some loose ends for school. I didn’t get the newsletter out but it wasn’t my fault. The principal came up with some fairly substantial last minute items she wanted added to it. Obviously, she’s never written a newsletter because everything has to be fitted perfectly into nice little boxes and corners. Last minute changes require changing the size of fonts, pictures, and moving or rewriting articles to make everything fit and look right. So…I redid a ton of it this morning to incorporate the things she wanted. Anyway, it’s done now and will be distributed Monday.

I actually had a pretty good day yesterday. I had planned on finishing, copying and distributing the newsletters but, after I found out about all the changes, I just decided to do it this morning when I could work in solitude and concentrate. That left yesterday fairly free and I was able to get some things cleared from my desk and actually took my wild class outside to join the ROTC field day. I had to lay it all out ahead of time. Told them they were to line up and walk silently through the hall to the door. They were to continue walking with me until we got out to the softball field area. I told them they could shoot baskets at the hoop area, sit on the bleachers or dance (as long as they kept the dancing appropriate). Told them they were not to eat any food or take any drinks unless I allowed it after I determined if ROTC had any extra and they were not to nag me about it. Warned them that any infractions would be written up as referrals and this was their last chance to show me that they could behave themselves. Made me feel like I was babysitting a bunch of four year olds. I swear, I’m not used to middle schoolers. I’m used to dealing with upper level classes in high school. Anyway, I have to give them credit….they did a great job. ROTC had lots of chips, hotdogs, cookies and soft drinks left over and my kids were polite and thanked them. My kids took the basketball I brought and all the boys shot hoops and behaved themselves and the girls sat in the shade of a big tree and cheered them on. Two of the girls wanted to do my nails and I let them although I’m not sure I would have chosen blue nail polish. They lined up and followed me back in the building when it was time to go and I was totally pleased with them. They even thanked me for taking them outside and asked me if I was proud of them and I assured them that I was. Of course, part of the reason they were so good is that the two worst of the bunch are currently suspended so I didn’t have to deal with them.

Psycho DIL asked if I could watch the boys for a couple of hours yesterday afternoon and I told her I would but I had a headache and I was tired and I didn’t want to watch them all evening. She told me she just had to run to the tanning booth and get a manicure and pedicure and she’d be back in two hours at the most. DS picked them up after five hours when he got off work at 9:00 last night. He’d been trying to call her and she’d turned her phone off. He said she came in at midnight last night and tried to pick a fight with him because she wanted to go to an all day concert with her friends today and he has to work so there wasn’t anyone to watch the boys. He told her she might have been able to get me to watch them if she hadn’t pulled a disappearing act and she wanted him to call me and try to get me to watch the kids today. He refused and went to bed. He woke up this morning and she was gone and she’s not answering her cell. So…she got her way. He had to bring the boys over to me and doesn’t know where she is. I do. I’m sure she’s at an all-day concert with her friends. I told DS I’m not going to let her use me again this summer and just run off whenever she feels like it because she knows I’ll watch the boys. He promised to talk to a couple of neighbors where he lives and line up emergency babysitting so, hopefully, he’ll have some alternatives lined up the next time she wants to be a party-girl.

Time for me to get moving. I’ve been sitting here working on the newsletter all morning and now I need to do some outside work. We want to get the pool cleaned today and ready to go and I have to crawl under the house and try to figure out why the air-conditioning isn’t blowing right in our bedroom. Our bedroom is usually a lot colder than the rest of the house and that’s good because we like to sleep in a cold room. This year, however, it doesn’t seem like we’re getting any air out of the vents and DH thinks the venting may have come loose. What joy! I get to crawl on my belly forty feet to get to the area under our bedroom and check things out. Ughhh. I hate to think about it. I do have four men living here but DH and DS are too big to get through the crawl space and Andrew and Steven have a diffcult time understanding problem solving and probably wouldn’t be able to figure out what was wrong or how to fix it.

6:30 – Got the pool opened and the kids are mad because they can’t get in. “Sorry, guys, it’s too cold.” Got the grass cut and fixed the vent under the house. Turned out that the shaft(?), venting(?), whatever you call the long silver thingie that conducts the air from the main input area out to the individual air vents had come off. Easy enough to fix. I just lifted it up and seated it correctly and drove a couple of nails through the metal sheeting to keep it from falling off again. A lot easier to fix than it was to get to. I forgot that the crawl space is a gravel bed. Kind of nice that I wasn’t slithering in the dirt but pretty rough on the body. I had to pull two old sleeping bags along. Lie on one and throw the other one up ahead. Crawl off the first one and scoot to the second one and then repeat the process. Isn’t someone supposed to get paid big bucks to do this stuff?

Of course, youngest DS showed up just as I finished and said, “Mom! I would have done that for you!” and he would have. Wish I’d thought of that. Anyway, I had a long talk with him and told him, in no uncertain terms, that I’m not condoning or supporting him enabling DIL. I told him not to call me tomorrow and not to bring the kids over. Find a BABYSITTER! For the last four years straight, DIL has run off within two or three days of the end of the school year. I warned him that she’ll probably do it again this year and that I will not be there to clean up the mess. He agrees with me. He says he’ll be ready. We’ll see.

7 Comments

Saint Patty, you are too good hearted a person. Because if it were my son, I would have probably told him “I’m sorry your wife took off today. I’m busy.” Because it doesn’t sound like he’s the one suffering the consequences of constantly forgiving her erradic behavior, you are. And I’m sorry, but I just don’t see that changing. She’s going to continue to pull this crap because a) she keeps getting away with it, with virtually no consequences and b) she’s mentally ill and not getting the right treatment (obviously, or she’d be getting better, not worse.)

Patty, I feel horribly for you. You love your grandkids and their parents are taking advantage of that and using it against you.

As for crawling under the house… ewww!!! Spiders and all sorts of creepy crawlies. We have black widows out here in abundance. And rattlesnakes. You couldn’t pay me to do that!! I’m going to change your name to Indiana Patty!!

You know what, that came across as really harsh and it totally wasn’t meant to be!! I just get frustrated for you. Maybe even more than you do yourself. I hate to see truly good people being taken advantage of!! HUGS!!!

You are like McGyver, you can fix anything! The sleeping bag idea is fabulous.

Glad the 7th graders surprised you w/their behavior. I have taught middle school for 5 years now and I can say the nail polish episode confirms the fact that they like you. Maybe the next time your DIL wants a mani/pedi you could send a 7th grader over and if she wants a tan tell her to get to work in your yard. OK, flashback, that’s what my mom always told ME.

Last week then it’s time to relax. You can do it!

Brandie

I almost forgot, thanks for the great support about me not getting the job. Sometimes you know things but it feels better when you hear others say them, too. Our schools are lucky to have both of us

Glad you stood up for yourself and are helping your son stand on his own two feet as well – you being the reliable babysitter is keeping a lot of people immature. Your son will be a more responsible father and better able to make choices about his marriage if he alone has to deal with managing his family during times like this.

Indiana Patty…hahahahahaha! Suits you
Sorry you are continuing to have probs with DIL…
Why can our sons not see what these type of women do to them? Was I that dumb when I was young? Must have been, stayed with my first hubby far too long, and thru too much misery.
So maybe there is hope for our sons, as I grew up, so can they.
Hang in there girl, you are remarkable